Adoration of the Magi/Dream of the Magi: Wissington, Suffolk(St. Edmundsbury & Ipswich) Late C.13

Photo: T.MarshallVery faint and faded now, these two scenes show the three Magi in adoration of the Infant Jesus, and Mary enthroned with him on her lap, each part of the scene shown within a separate tabernacle. Not much is left of any figure here, but all three Magi are present on the left, the leading Magus kneeling, and it is (just) possible to see that the Child is raising his right hand to them in blessing.

Of much greater interest though is an accompanying scene of great rarity, showing the Dream of the Magi, narrated in Matthew 2:12 but filtered here through the imagination of the skilled and thoughful Wissington painter. At the left of the scene, all three Magi share a bed in accordance with normal practice in the Middle Ages. God is represented in the dream by an angel, whose wings, like those in the Wissington Annunciation to the Shepherds (link below), must once have been particularly gorgeous. I have seen this treatment of the subject in continental manuscript painting, but I know of no other example in England.